THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



CORRESPONDENCE 



THE GREAT SOUTHERN TORTOISE 

 AGAIN. 

 Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



MY object in writing to you on Novem- 

 ber 1, 1888, was, as I then stated, to 

 call the attention of Prof. Shaler to the er- 

 ror into which he had fallen in attributing 

 to the gophei- (a tortoise) the habits of the 

 salamander (Geomys pinetis), a small rodent. 

 I did not expect my remarks to be pub- 

 lished by you, but I did expect Prof. Sha- 

 ler, as of his own motion, to make through 

 your pages some explanation or acknowl- 

 edgment of his blunder ; and had you been 

 content to simply print my note in your 

 January number, I should not now feel called 

 upon to make further reference to the sub- 

 ject. The only inference to be drawn from 

 your editorial comments upon my note is 

 that you have not read Prof. Shalcr's article 

 on the " Habits of the Great Southern Tor- 

 toise," which appears in your journal for Xo- 

 vember, 1888, and to which my note refers ! 

 The question is not, as you appear to sup- 

 pose, which animal, the gopher or the sala- 

 mander, produces the greater effect upon the 

 soil of Florida. What I wish to point out is 

 the fact that a reputed scientist has pub- 

 lished in a scientific journal an article which 

 ascribes to one animal habits which are im- 

 possible to it and which belong to a totally 

 different animal. He then proceeds to specu- 

 late, from these false premises, as to " the 

 limits of evolution under the influence of 

 natural selection"; and, naturally enough, 

 in his efforts to reconcile the irreconcilable, 

 finds himself reduced to the necessity of 



"begging the question." He would have 

 saved himself all this trouble and perplexity 

 if, in describing the habits of the animal, he 

 had written salamander wherever the word 

 gopher now appears in his paper. 



Very respectfully, C. C. Byrne, 



Surgeon United States Army. 

 Wasuington, D. C, January 4, 1889. 



THE WATS OF BEES. 

 Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



Sir : I see that you too have copied that 

 "bees and pigeon race hoax," in your notes 

 on page 287 of the December number, when 

 " twelve bees, having been rolled in flour to 

 mark them, and twelve pigeons belonging to 

 a fancier in the village, were let loose about 

 a league away. The first bee reached home 

 a quarter of a minute before the first pigeon, 

 and the rest of both squads arrived at the 

 same instant, a few moments afterward." 

 This is a canard. Take bees three miles 

 from home and liberate them, and they will 

 rise and circle roimd. the place where they 

 find themselves till they mark the location ; 

 then they will fly away in search of food, and, 

 when they are loaded, will return to the spot 

 they left, not to their old home, three miles 

 or so away. Respectfully yours, 



Mahala B. Chaddock. 

 Vermont, III., January 10, 1889. 



[The item in question was translated 

 from "La Nature," of September 8, 1888; 

 a journal that is not usually careless in sci- 

 entific matters. — Ed.] 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



WHAT MAKES SUCCESS IN LIFE. 



"YTTHEN the storm of the French 

 VV Revolution was over, the Abbe 

 Sieyes, who had taken a prominent part 

 in it at the outset, was asked, somewhat 

 in derision, what he had done in that 

 critical time. " J''ai cecM," was his re- 

 ply : " I lived through it." This, indeed, 

 was no mean success for any actor in 

 that bloody drama; and the philosoph- 

 ical abb6 might well take a little pride 

 in the adroitness that had enabled him 

 to keep his head on his shoulders. Tak- 

 ing a broad view of the matter, survival 



is the best test of success; but then sur- 

 vival may either be of the whole or of 

 a part only, of much or of little. The 

 man may survive as a living organism — 

 a zoological specimen — but character 

 may be gone, or hope, or health, or 

 happiness. The truly successful are they 

 who carry with them to the end that 

 which makes life worth living, who re- 

 tain the sense of a purpose and meaning 

 in life, and who do not, like James Mill, 

 father of John Stuart Mill, feel that, when 

 the freshness of youth is past, human 

 existence is a somewhat dreary thing. 



